Archive for October, 2011

Spreading the Good words

Monday, October 24th, 2011

It seems like a minor detail, but it really can set the difference between a solid yahoo marketing plan and a not so efficient one – we’re talking about grammar.
The content is the biggest asset of a good answer, but the way that post is presented is also a very important feature to help raise awareness and respect towards the brand you’re promoting. Badly written words or strangely constructed phrases can present you to the Yahoo community as an amateurish service provider, not really the kind of image you’re trying to create.

That said, there are a couple of strategies you need to avoid: automatic and spammy softwares are completely forbidden; spinning texts, even if conceived by humans, are also very prone to mistakes; and finally using non-English natives as posts providers can also be tricky, for obvious reasons.

All of the above are, usually, cheap ways to provide answers in Yahoo, and that’s why they’re so difficult to resist. If you’re looking for quality work, however, a strategy that will truly present your website as a faithful service provider, than there is only one option: organic posts created by experimented professionals, just like Questions-Answers.net provides.

Returning to what a good answer should be

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Everybody knows – or thinks that knows – what a good answer is. When talking about Yahoo Answers Marketing purposes, is common to see expressions like “helpful” or “thoughtful” to typify the post you should leave in order to promote your service/product. But what does those expressions really mean? How do you really build a “good answer”? There are some factors to have in mind:

1 – To give a good answer you’ll need a good question. When promoting your own website, the natural urge is to leave that hyperlink laying around everywhere. That’s a mistake. That behavior will gain you a red flag (and then a suspension or ban) and just won’t work. Find your niche, identify the real demands of your audience and address only to them.

2 – Yes, you do need to be helpful. That means your answer should be enough to satisfy the asker curiosity/need. Don’t just leave a hyperlink and expect people to press on it and do all the work. Respond directly and leave your URL as source, that way raising brand awareness and building a positive feeling around your services.

3 – Yes, you also do need to be thoughtful. That means you should do your homework. Don’t just answer from the top of your head – take your time to really look upon the asker issues and deliver the maximum amount of information possible. A bad answer (incomplete or incorrect) can damage the confidence in your services.

4 – Don’t spam or copy/paste previous answers. Yahoo Answers is a community of people, not robots.

5 – Pay attention to grammar. Again, an answer full of orthographic errors it’s just going to diminish the confidence built around your services. Take your time to double check your answer.

6 – Size doesn’t matter. A single line answer CAN be enough. Provide the information the asker is seeking, nothing else. People are looking for straight answers, not for advertisement. Quality always should prevail over quantity.

Tips and tricks – Follow Up

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

It’s time demanding all right, enduring an efficient Yahoo Answers Marketing campaign. Studying the trends, choosing the right keywords, electing the most appealing URLs, managing the different accounts, answering in a thoughtful and helpful way… But the task doesn’t end there, once the final answer of the day is posted. You need to get back again and again, because, as useful as your previous posts may have been, you’ll probably need an extra push to guarantee them that juicy Best Answer status (remember that you’re not the only marketer out there).

Having an army of extra accounts ready to vote your answers is another trick you can use to help your Yahoo Answer Marketing assault. The task is easy – just press the vote button a couple of times – but, as always, there are some perils involved. For starters, an account with more than 30% of Best Answers ratio raises an immediate red flag among Yahoo staff. We won’t that, so be wise with that voting and don’t get too ambitious. And before that, it’s vital to keep a very organized report about all the answers provided, the votes applied in each one and the different status…

Yeah, better leave it for pros!

Which URL to promote

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Lots of times, there is that doubt about what hyperlink to promote: the one that will go straight to your landing page, demanding that the potential customers still browse around the website to find out all the services provided and products available; or post hyperlink directly to particular products/services, right on to the pricing page where the client will see a description of what he’s about to buy and, of course, the call to action button.

There is no right or wrong answer to this, it much depends on the Yahoo Answers Marketing strategy anyone underlines, but normally is best to, first of all, build a solid awareness of your brand, posting the landing page URL. Then, on a second phase, people will start to recognize your products even without landing on the main page, and that’s when you can easily promote a particular product or service without sounding a shady barter selling something in a street corner.

However, any Yahoo Answer Marketing plan must follow the flow of the community, and when noticing a particular demands for a very particular service/product, then don’t be afraid to improvise… It a time demanding task, and that’s why you should leave it to pros!

Tips and Tricks – Categories

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Anyone who browses regularly through Yahoo Answers will easily spot a load of questions that simply don’t fit – people asking for favorite videogame to outdoor sports enthusiasts, others searching for nice chicken recipes amongst environmentalists, and even broken-hearth lovers looking for advisement within the linguists community. A problem of wrong category placement that will diminish the chances of receiving an answer (or, at least, a useful one).

For marketers with a Yahoo Answers Marketing plan in their hands, that could prove as an interesting opportunity to reach a niche of people that still wanders out there without their questions being asked. Those misplaced questions are, however, harder to spot – they demand intelligent search tools and lots of free time for browsing purposes. But, once found, the answers will be probably none, giving you all the space you need to fully apply your Yahoo Answers Marketing plan, achieving with ease a best answer status – and after the answer has been posted, with the correct keywords in it, your service will be much more visible to any simple search (even on Google), transforming a “ghost question” into a visible post with an hyperlink directed straight to your URL.

At the beginning

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Every single second a new question pops up in Yahoo Answers. This simple fact could mean a huge business opportunity, when correctly interpreted. A great deal of these questions shows needs waiting to be fulfilled, and a vast majority of them can be dealt with the providence of a product or service. So lining a Yahoo Answers marketing plan can begin BEFORE you decide to enter the market of any given product or service – Yahoo answers is also a great way to scrutinize trends and find niche markets, not only to promote existing ones.

Finding a recurrent need that you feel that’s not being correctly addressed or addressed at all can be an intelligent first step to provide the solution that many seek. The Yahoo Answers marketing strategy starts there. Then the second phase begins: spread the word in a helpful and thoughtful way, with your URL hyperlink accompanying every post. Suddenly, everybody has what they’re looking for, and you have your call to action buttons pressed like never before.